Happy Valentine's Day

Elodie came home from school with two lovely literary works for Valentine’s Day.


I feel peaceful when I’m at home, thinking about candy. I like laying with my blankie.

By Elodie

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The Five Senses of Love

By Elodie

Love looks like a movie, like Harry Potter.
Love sounds really loud like a sneeze.
Love smells like hamburgers and barbeques.
Love tastes like blood.
Love feels good like being nice to your sister.

Making Cookies

The pictures are explanation enough.

Visitor

My sister from Turkey, Leanna, visited us this weekend. We LOVED having her here, and the visit went way too quickly. The girls loved tackling Leanna, laughing with her, feeding her Cheerios, and dancing to her Turkish techno.

Skate, Skate Baby

We attended skate night last week with Madeleine and Elodie's elementary school. Amazingly enough, the skating rink looked exactly like the one I attended during elementary school--outdated carpet, duct tape, and all.

All three girls--even little Camille--tried to skate. Camille lasted only a few minutes, Elodie lasted a few more, but Madeleine went all out. It was only her second time on skates, but she did amazingly well and had a great attitude.

Merry Christmas!

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

Finding a Christmas Tree

We cut our own Christmas tree yesterday. This is an experience common in Oregon but one I’ve never taken part of. For you trivia buffs, Oregon supplies 60 percent of the nation’s Christmas trees. This means the state is home to many Christmas tree farms. I was amazed when I moved here and saw huge fields of Christmas trees as I drove around that first summer.

We drove less than ten miles yesterday and encountered at least five Christmas tree farms along the way. We picked one that supplied saws and twine since we forgot to bring them with us.

Getting on my knees and cutting with only one arm (other arm supporting myself in the mud) was more difficult than I anticipated. It was also tougher to carry the tree than I thought. Fortunately, the farm had a little tractor that came around periodically and carried our tree and our kids back to the parking lot.

The best part was baling the tree. The sign said, “Tree Baling $2, Kids Free.” After we baled the tree, I jokingly asked Elodie, “Do you want to be baled?” She said, “Yes” and climbed right into the baler. And then Madeleine followed. It was EXCELLENT. Unfortunately, they escaped the netting, so the confinement didn’t last long. J

And now we have the tree at home with all of the decorations below the 4’ level. I guess I need to interfere and rearrange a little.